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I think one major part that is lacking in web design is that most of the stuff out there simply isn't made by us. I mean, seriously, most of the stuff is being done by people who aren't us or who we don't even know, that just can't be right.

Please give us a brief bio of yourself.

I was born in 1978, the Chinese year of the horse. A very funny coincidence when you realise horse is also street slang for heroin and I have been a big user from 1997 onwards.

After doing the whole school thang I gently moved into the area of graphical design where I flexed my muscles doing flyer design. I hooked up with my good friend Wesley and we got to grips with some highly illegal software and spent an unhealthy amount of time building up some much-needed skills. We then foolishly decided to start our own company and were soon doing some extremely masturbatory flash work for a few companies and friends.

After making quite a splash with flash we ended up being headhunted by an evil corporation that locked us in a basement and made us work like small African children in a Nike sweatshop. After a few months we decided enough was enough and we broke free and started our own company called MediaMonks.

Our main reason was that we felt we could do a better job than a lot of companies that were out there and we tried to move away from a lot of the hype and buzzword bullshit that seems to surround the multimedia business.

What do you do for inspiration?

When I'm struggling for inspiration I find it very comforting to laugh at people who have been dealt a bad card by that wicked dealer we call life. I often visit art-classes for beginners and laugh at their pathetic attempts at graphical design, not a 45 degree angle in sight and they don't even know what bevel and emboss is.

I also enjoy kicking homeless people and killing small rodents. Also old people are a constant joy because they don't have the speed to give chase after you give them a well-deserved slap.

Adobe Photoshop, it's the standard and I love it to bits. Macromedia Flash, I'm closer to my copy of flash than to most of my family members. I would kill my dog before I give up my copy of flash. Kill it, kill it until it is dead.

What do you regard as being your biggest achievement?

I find it quite stunning that I seem to still be a reasonably well-rounded, sociable person because my social life is entering a millennial ice age.

Running a company means free time is becoming something of a distant, surreal memory and only the occasional drink-binge gets me out amongst my fellow man. So all in all my biggest achievement is still retaining some basic social skills while practicing a profession that is about as sociable as your average nightwatch-lighthouse employee.

What projects do you have in the pipeline?

I have a distinct feeling we won't get much linkage soon because it's all corporate work at the moment. We are working on some personal projects our favourite being our very own indoor soccer club, which we're planning to have up, and running for the start of next season.

Who do you rate as being the top 3 design companies?

www.2Advanced.com, just because they're so slick. www.WDDG.com, because I love maverick, altoids and the bad ass shit project and they have a great name. Pixelsurgeon.co.uk, just started but gotsta love their style and humour. They also have some wicked hardcore coders.

What effect on traffic do your new designs have?

I'm guessing you mean web traffic, well our designs mostly mean a customer gets lots of hits from our family and friends who aren't really interested in the site anyways. After about a month it dies down and you're stuck with less traffic then a deserted highway in the middle of the North Pole.

Who is your target audience?

Anybody that likes peanut butter and is legally allowed to get drunk. Seriously though we always aim to produce work that fits the company's target audience instead of our own although we can't deny we like to spice things up a little bit if possible.

For our personal work we like to think our target audience are nubile young woman with a penchant for kung fu movies and unnaturally large breasts in relation to their petit and silky smooth bodies.

What area of web design lacks the most?

I think one major part that is lacking in web design is that most of the stuff out there simply isn't made by us. I mean, seriously, most of the stuff is being done by people who aren't us or who we don't even know, that just can't be right.

Would you entrust your child to a slightly deranged-looking midget without shoes who you don't even know? Thought not. So why let other people besides us make your stuff? I just can't see the logic.

What did your very first site look like?

The first thing we did wasn't a site but a Flash Flyer for a company that didn't pay us. It's big and clumsy but for a first try we quite like it. Also the company still owes us 2250 dollars so if anybody is willing to donate please feel free. Send me your logo and I'll put it in there man, come on you know it makes sense.

Have you written any books, if not do you plan to?

I haven't written anything of note although I did once start a book on the political situation in east Ghana. Quite a riveting read but I just couldn't get myself to finish it, too much personal history man. I would love to write a book, preferably titled 'My story, how I made my first million'

What was the toughest thing you ever did with Flash?

I once tried to engineer the perfect woman not unlike those guys in Weird Science using nothing but AS and a deep understanding of the chaos-theory.

In the end it just turned in to some weird praystation actionscript thingy looking like a cross between Jenifer Lopez and something by prate.

Do you think Flash is here to stay?

I hope so, I've spent so much time with it and I don't think I can go through that again. I think flash 5 cemented it, as a viable piece of software for some serious application development and that seems to be the way it's going to progress. I personally find it fascinating the way flash has made the jump from gratuitous animation tool to serious application-development tool.

I hope and expect we'll see more and more work that pushes flash as a usable tool for intricate web applications and that we can finally expel the myth that flash sites are slow loading and cumbersome.

How have you learned so many Flash/design skills and techniques and can you offer any advice for newbies?

Like a wise monk once said, practice makes perfect. I just ended up checking lots of sites to see what could be done and followed as many tutorials as I could find.

My advice is to just practice until you find yourself talking in actionscript syntax and friends stop answering your desperate pleas to join you for a drink.

if{gin == thirsty}

bar.gotoAndStop("getGuinness")

}

What type of overcoat do you wear when Flashing, basically are you a labels man?

I'm not a labels man really although I enjoy a good piece of clothing.

I have to say I'm more of a fabric person to be honest; I just love corduroy or a nice piece of velvet. My favourite outfit for a heavy flash season has to be my pixelsurgeon shirt, a dodgy smelling pair of shorts and a hat of some sort.

Any parting shots or pearls of wisdom?

Never ever start your own company, try to go out drinking at least twice a week and buy some nice shoes.

It's been a privilege, Gin, thanks very much.

You really are too kind; I will name my first-born child after you.

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